Sami Abu Zuhri (; born 1967) is a senior spokesman for the

Palestinian Palestinians () are an Arab ethnonational group native to the Levantine region of Palestine. *: "Palestine was part of the first wave of conquest following Muhammad's death in 632 CE; Jerusalem fell to the Caliph Umar in 638. The indigenous p ...

organization

Hamas The Islamic Resistance Movement, abbreviated Hamas (the Arabic acronym from ), is a Palestinian nationalist Sunni Islam, Sunni Islamism, Islamist political organisation with a military wing, the Qassam Brigades. It has Gaza Strip under Hama ...

Life

Abu Zuhri was born in

Rafah Rafah ( ) is a city in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestine, and the capital of the Rafah Governorate. It is located south-west of Gaza City. In 2017, Rafah had a population of 171,889. Due to the Gaza war, about 1.4 million people from Gaza C ...

in 1967. He studied history at the Islamic University of Gaza and served as Head of the Islamic University Student Council from 1994 to 1997. He got his MA in history in 2004.

Career in Hamas

Zuhri gained notoriety on May 19, 2006, before which time he was a relatively unknown member of Hamas, when Palestinian security and customs officials discovered he had 640,000

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

s on his person; another report claimed he held a larger sum of 900,000 euros, and confiscated it, after Abu Zuhri dropped a concealed money belt at a routine border crossing from

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

to the

Gaza Strip The Gaza Strip, also known simply as Gaza, is a small territory located on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea; it is the smaller of the two Palestinian territories, the other being the West Bank, that make up the State of Palestine. I ...

. The news brought competing Hamas and

Fatah Fatah ( ; ), formally the Palestinian National Liberation Movement (), is a Palestinian nationalist and Arab socialist political party. It is the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and ...

paramilitary forces to the crossing checkpoint, which Abu Zuhri refused to leave without the banknotes, which had been confiscated as contraband. Abu Zuhri told a reporter from the Arab broadcaster

Al Jazeera Al Jazeera Media Network (AJMN; , ) is a private-media conglomerate headquartered in Wadi Al Sail, Doha, funded in part by the government of Qatar. The network's flagship channels include Al Jazeera Arabic and Al Jazeera English, which pro ...

that the money had been donated privately by individuals he met during a tour of Arab nations. The European monitors, who took up the station when

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

pulled out of Gaza, are charged with checking for

contraband Contraband (from Medieval French ''contrebande'' "smuggling") is any item that, relating to its nature, is illegal to be possessed or sold. It comprises goods that by their nature are considered too dangerous or offensive in the eyes of the leg ...

, which sometimes includes weapons and food. Julio De La Guardia, a spokesman for the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

contingent that monitors the passage, said travelers crossing through Rafah must declare all sums over $2,000. Abu Zuhri stated his objection to the inclusion of what he referred to as the "so-called

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

" in the proposed

UNRWA The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA, pronounced ) is a UN agency that supports the relief and human development of Palestinian refugees. UNRWA's mandate encompasses Palestinians who fl ...

lesson plan for students in Gaza. He continued "we think it's more important to teach Palestinians the crimes of the

Israeli occupation Israel has occupied the Golan Heights of Syria and the Palestinian territories since the Six-Day War of 1967. It has previously occupied the Sinai Peninsula of Egypt and southern Lebanon as well. Prior to 1967, control of the Palestinian terr ...

." When Marwan Qawasmahi and Amer Abu Aisha, the suspected perpetrators of the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in 2014, were killed by Israel, he said "Hamas praises the role the martyrs played in chasing down Israeli settlers and we stress that their assassination will not weaken the resistance". In December 2014, Abu Zuhri reportedly harassed a Gaza-based foreign female reporter and was being investigated by Hamas.

References

External links

Washington Post
14 September 2008 ''Abbas aims to stay in office to 2010 despite Hamas'' Reuters article

''Israeli minister vows Palestinian "holocaust"'' By Tim Butcher
Reuters
15 May 2008 ''Bush hails Israel's "chosen people" as Arabs lament''

28 June 2004
Zuhri Interview with Sami Abu Zuhri
30 September 2005

''Hamas official caught at border with more than $1 million'' 19 May 2006
ABC News
"Hamas Official Caught Smuggling $817,000"
IMEMC
''Abu Zuhri calls on Abbas to declare the failure of peace talks'' 26 April 2008

20 April 2008 ''Report: Hamas rejects Egyptian plan for truce with Israel''
Jpost
'Hizbullah's terror chief killed in Damascus bombing'' By Yaakov Katz

5 August 2008 ''Gazans' Access To Care Faulted Israeli Interrogation Criticized in Report'' By Linda Gradstein {{DEFAULTSORT:Zuhri, Sami Abu 1967 births Living people Islamic University of Gaza alumni Hamas members Palestinian Holocaust deniers